On 24 November 2011, the Senate passed a Bill to amend the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (PPSA) to give the Attorney-General the power to determine a registration commencement time for the Personal Property Securities Register later than 1 February 2012 (the date on which the new scheme automatically commences under the original Act). Doing so will give businesses additional time to ensure they are ready to comply with the requirements of the PPSA when it commences.

The Bill also amends the PPSA to give the Attorney-General the power to determine an earlier or later date for the time by which the agencies in charge of existing Commonwealth, State and Territory registers must start migrating data to the Personal Property Securities Register. This is the last key step in the transition from the current registers to the new Personal Property Securities Register.

Despite the Attorney-General now having the power to determine a later migration date, on 21 November 2011 the Attorney-General determined a new migration date of 21 November 2011, almost one and a half months earlier than the automatic migration date of 1 January 2012 under the original Act. This earlier migration date and the ability to determine a later registration commencement time gives the Attorney-General greater flexibility to manage any additional issues and risks associated with the migration of data from the existing registers before the Personal Property Securities Register goes live.

The scheme set out by the PPSA is intended to harmonise the numerous and often conflicting and disparate Commonwealth, State and Territory Acts affecting dealings in securities in personal property (including registered and unregistered intellectual property rights) in Australia. For further information about the impact of the PPSA, see the upcoming edition of our e-Mag.

What you need to do to prepare

Now is the time to make sure your business is ready to comply with the requirements of the PPSA when it commences in the New Year. We can advise on how the PPSA will affect your business and its IP assets in particular and what you can do to ensure your business is ready when the Personal Property Securities Register goes live.